I have to admit at being a bit perplexed. It seems like the general level of public outrage during the NM Treasurer Scandals was significantly higher than it is today in the face of what appears to be a much larger bilking of the taxpayers here and throughout the nation:
Marc Correra has been at the center of the investment controversy in New Mexico.
He is the son of Anthony Correra, a retired stockbroker from New York who agreed to surrender his license in connection with insider trading allegations. The two share a Santa Fe business address.
Anthony Correra was on Richardson’s transition team and a member of the search committee that led to the hiring of Gary Bland as State Investment Officer.
Geez, talk about a smoking gun. Governor Richardson puts a gut on the search committee to hire the the State Investment Officer who had to surrender his license to due to insider trading allegations. Then, his son is paid millions of dollars in fees for deals involving the State Investment Council:
Records show that [Marc Correra] was involved as a placement agent and shared in more than $11 million on nearly two dozen investment deals with the State Investment Council, which is appointed and chaired by Richardson and run by Bland.
Marc Correra shared in more than $4 million in fees for investments made by the ERB.
He has not been charged with any wrongdoing. His Albuquerque attorney, Sam Bregman, said Wednesday he had no comment.
And, when was the last time anyone remembering Sam Bregman having no comment? Heck, you even have a U.S. Senator’s step-daughter and campaign manager of his Senate run being granted immunity. Bottom line, this isn’t a pretty picture. Yet, the general public outrage just doesn’t seem to be at the level it should be. If it was, it would be hard to see how anyone even remotely connected with this administration could be considering a run for anything in 2010.
Now, does that mean I think every elected and appointed official in the Richardson administration is corrupt. No. But, at the very least they were quiet enablers. At some point, heads should start rolling, right? How much longer can all of this go on? Think about the last few years. We’ve had…
- the treasurer scandal and its far reaching associations followed by…
- the state insurance scandal followed by…
- the housing authority scandal followed by…
- the court house scandal followed by…
- the Secretary of State scandal followed by…
- the New Mexico Finance Authority scandal followed…
- the State Investment Council scandal…
- the Attorney General scandal…
Isn’t it about time to clean house? That’s a heck of a list in just four years. I can’t even keep track of which came first. New Mexico has been a one party state for so long that it proves the adage that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. It’s one of the reasons that I think, no make that I hope, that 2010 brings change to New Mexico. We need to restore a balance. It’s also why Ed Rollins recent commentary makes perfect sense:
As bleak as things might seem today for Republicans, I have to put things into context.
I became a Republican in the summer of 1972. I was involved in running President Nixon’s re -election campaign in California and became part of his administration at the start of his second term.
In very short order after my arrival in Washington in January 1973, the Nixon administration came apart at the seams with a daily soap opera of criminal charges, congressional hearings, federal indictments and the resignation of Vice President Spiro Agnew for bribe taking, followed 10 months later by the resignation of Richard Nixon who was about to be impeached by the Congress.
I was demoralized and ashamed of the leaders of my new party. But I wasn’t going to quit because I still believed in the principles of strong national defense and smaller government, and in the idea that working people should do better than those who don’t.
In the aftermath of all this, Republicans got slaughtered in the midterm elections of 1974, losing 48 House seats and five Senate seats. Republicans had only 144 House members in the 94th Congress.
Two years later, Jimmy Carter was elected president and I was convinced Republicans would be in the wilderness the rest of my political life. After the first 100 days, President Carter’s approval rating was 69 percent — higher than President Obama’s.
And four years after that I was working in the White House as an assistant to President Ronald Reagan — who defeated Carter by a landslide and won a Senate majority and a philosophical majority in the House. For 20 of the next 28 years, a Republican was in the White House.
What’s been going on in New Mexico makes Watergate look like childs play. It’s is time for a change. Anyone that is part of the current insanely corrupt government political structure in New Mexico needs to go in these next rounds of elections.